Computers typically communicate by exchanging data packets over a network. The network has a limited amount of bandwidth available to transport the data packets from one endpoint to another. The available bandwidth limits the rate at which the computers can exchange the data packets. Inadequate rates of data packet transfer result in inefficiencies. For the non-commercial user, inadequate rates of transfer may result in frustration. In the commercial setting, a slow transfer may hinder productivity and profitability.
Businesses often have sustained end-to-end connections, such as between two or more physical locations. There may be a headquarters and several branch offices, for example. In order to increase the throughput of data packets, each endpoint may employ an accelerator device that is logically located between the sending device and the receiving device. The accelerator device is a network transparent device in that data packets are received that are addressed to downstream devices, and the accelerator device may pass through packets unchanged or may collect packets for compression and transmission in a compressed state.
The accelerator device may apply compression to the payload of the data packets to increase the throughput and improve the user experience. However, the accelerator device terminate the transport layer stream of the incoming packets by discarding the original header and act as a proxy service to deliver the payload.
While the accelerator device may provide desirable compression, the termination of the transport layer stream presents problems. As one particular example, endpoint-to-endpoint authentication protocols such as Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) and Server Message Block (SMB) signing are no longer possible.